Introduction to Systematic Theology - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Introduction to Systematic Theology. SOURCES OF REVELATION:. Objective View: Roman Catholic Theology There is One Source (tradition) in two kinds Tradition One Tradition Two Mediated by the teaching office of the Church.

Copyright Complaint Adult Content Flag as Inappropriate

I am the owner, or an agent authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of the copyrighted work described.

Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author.While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server.

“The revelation of God in his written Word is easily shown not only to be incomparably superior to all other manifestations of him in the fullness, richness and clearness of its communications, but also to contain the sole discovery of much that is most important for the soul to know as to its state and destiny.” Warfield, Studies in Theology, 60-1.

Since the Scriptures, ultimately, are God’s revelation to all of mankind, there will be a unity of truth even in the midst of diverse cultural emphases and contextualized language

Some evangelicals “have tended to view theology as transcultural or culturally neutral. Always fearful of the historicist notion of theology, these evangelicals have typically championed biblical authority by claiming that there is only one horizon in theology- the biblical text itself.” Richard Lints, The Fabric of Theology, 102

There are two horizons that must be addressed if one is to do theology properly

The Ancient World: the biblical text and its cultural milieu

The Modern World: the interpreter and the culture in which the interpretation occurs and is applied

Indeed, “ . . . there is still the need to link those understandings [the ‘specific cultural and historical meaning of Scripture’] up with the target culture into which we wish to announce these words, not to mention our need to be aware of our own cultural baggage as interpreters.” Walter Kaiser and Moses Silva, An Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics, 175

Some interpreters (usually of the more critical schools) have erred on the other extreme

They suggest “that the meaning of the biblical message is actually determined by the constraints of the contemporary culture, that the Scriptures have no other meaning than that which is permitted by the conceptuality of the present-day situation.” Lints, Fabric, 102

Lints gives, as an example, the methodology of Rudolf Bultmann

The key idea that must be considered is the unavoidable fact that “we hear the divine conversation only after it has passed through several filters.” Lints, Fabric, 60

There is a transcultural aspect to the doing of theology: “Ought we to give our western creeds to the Oriental mind? . . . Of course those Western creeds ought to be given to the Oriental mind. But that ought to be done only on one condition- that those western creeds are true. If they are not true, they ought not to be given to the Oriental mind or to any other kind of mind; but if they are true, they are just as true in China as they are in the United States.” Machen, Christian Faith in the Modern World, 93

“Our final and fundamental hope rests in the conviction that God himself communicates across cultures, principally across that cultural chasm that lies between himself and us. As Gabriel Fackre has suggested, ‘We are not so locked into our ecclesial or cultural positions that its truth cannot make itself known to us- the Word addresses the hearer- even to the extent that a contemporary perspective from which a text is viewed can be challenged, modified and even overturned by the text.’” Lints, Fabric, 114

There is an unavoidable cultural influence in the doing of theology and consequentially, a need to evaluate critically its effect on the theological task: “Contemporary theologians must also seek to challenge the contemporary mind to think more critically about its own culturally accepted values.” Lints, Fabric, 113

“I wonder if we really recognize that all theology represents a contextualization, even our own theology? We speak of Latin American theology, black theology, or feminist theology; but without the slightest second thought we will assume that our own theology is simply theology, undoubtedly in its purest form. Do we recognize that the versions of evangelical theology held by most people in this room are in fact North American, white, and male and that they reflect and/ or address those values and concerns?” Stanley Gundry, “Evangelical Theology: Where Should We Be Going?” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 22 (1979): 11